The United States provided tens of thousands of its Medium Tank M4, also named the Sherman, to many of its Allies during the Second World War, under the terms of Lend-Lease.

Conversions and modifications of the M4 by their foreign users included the British-Commonwealth Firefly with the potent British QF 17 pounder (76.2 mm) anti-tank gun; Adder, Salamander, Crocodile, and Badger[3] flame-throwing Shermans; Kangaroo armoured personnel carrier; Armoured recovery vehicles (ARV); artillery tractors, and the specialist military engineering vehicles of "Hobart's Funnies" designed specifically for Operation Overlord ("D-Day") and the Battle of Normandy.

Canada created a prototype anti-aircraft vehicle with four 20 mm Polsten cannons mounted in a turret on Canadian-made M4A1 hull, which was called Skink.

This includes Sherman tanks used by all members of the British Dominions and Empire and those Allies who were equipped by the UK, such as the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

The first M4A1 Sherman II received by the UK was equipped with two driver-operated fixed mount machine-guns in the hull front and carried the shorter M2 75mm tank gun with a counterweight.

The two extra hull machine-guns were a standard feature of very early Shermans, carried over[citation needed] from the previous M3 Medium (Lee/Grant) tank, and were one of the first elements to be discarded from the original plan.

They were then hastily modified to meet British military requirements and for desert and hot-weather conditions, such as the addition of sandshields over the tracks.

Instead, in their place, they used Shermans and turretless and regular gun-tank Stuart tanks to equip their reconnaissance troops.

In general, the Shermans acted in the infantry support role in difficult (mountainous and hilly) terrain against fixed-type German defences and fortifications.

At the end of 1944, 76mm-, 105mm- (howitzer) and 17-pdr-armed Shermans began to be fielded by the British troops as they came up against the German-built and strongly-defended Gothic Line.

[citation needed] With the end of the war, and with superior tanks entering service, the UK returned its Shermans to reduce its Lend-Lease payments.

However, the US did not really want the 17pdr conversions returned and many found their way from British stocks into other armies post-war, where they served until the 1960s in many cases (e.g. Argentine Repotenciado upgrade of IC and VC fitted with French 105mm gun and diesel engine).

The 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade operated approximately 150 M4A2 Sherman tanks from late 1942 until the end of the war.

When the Australian Cruiser tank program was cancelled in 1943, after US authorities promised M4 Mediums would be available in any quantity required by Australia.

Early in 1944 Australian Army was requested by War Office to undertake trials of Churchill and Sherman tanks in "New Guinea conditions".

The results of these trials showed that the British Churchill tank was better suited to jungle warfare's low-speed infantry support than the Sherman.

The Sherman was largely held in good regard and viewed positively by many Soviet tank-crews which operated it before, with compliments mainly given to its reliability, ease of maintenance, generally good firepower (referring especially to the 76mm-gun version) and decent armour protection,[17] as well as an auxiliary power unit (APU) to keep the tank's batteries charged without having to run the main engine for the same purpose as the Soviets' own T-34 tank required.

[nb 2] After heavy losses closing the Falaise Pocket and in the Dutch campaign, the division was re-equipped, largely with Sherman IIA (M4A1 (W) 76 mm) models.

The Polish II Corps, fighting in Italy, primarily used M4A2s (Sherman III) that had been used by the British Army in Africa.

[19] In 1943, the Free French Forces decided to create their new army in North Africa, and had an agreement with the Americans to be equipped with modern US weapons.

The 1ème and 5ème DB, which entered southern France as part of the First French Army, were equipped with a mixture of M4A2 and M4A4 medium tanks.

The 3ème DB, which served as a training and reserve organization for the three operational armored divisions, was equipped with roughly 200 medium and light tanks.

In the final weeks of the War in Europe, French units also received supplies of M4A1(75)s, remanufactured in the US before shipment overseas.

In addition, one damaged Sherman I abandoned by an unknown unit was salvaged from the battlefield by the brigade's repair shop and was later used as a recovery vehicle.